A sort of hybrid of two ReadyMade Small Spaces projects, the Infiniski Manifesto House from James & Mau combines shipping containers and wooden pallets to form a breezy, modern structure in Chile. It looks like quite a place to escape…for more images, click here.
(via Arch Daily)
Three treetop classrooms could be the cure for all mid-geometry daydreaming at the Elleray Preparatory School in the UK. Designed by Robert Gaukroger of Kita Design Company, the pods were built with environmental impact and sustainability in mind. The center platform decking, made from recycled plastic milk bottles, will even be used as an outdoor classroom in the warmer months. Kind of makes you want to hit the books again…especially with those views of Lake District National Park.
(via Dezeen)
Interesting reuse of the day: David Keller took an extremely familiar item and by keeping its original form, made something completely different. The can light comes sealed, and you pop the top to let out as much light as you see fit.
(via Recycleart)
RM’s intern, Claire, using her resources. When it’s 63 and sunny, who needs a fancy contraption like a light box?
Kathryn Kenworth and Sasha Petrenko of San Francisco think that we are spending beyond our means and our current currency system is severely lacking. They believe now, more than ever, is the time to discover a more personal avenue for exchange: and the answer is Non*Mart.
Opening on November 6, the two month experiment bases its commerce on trade, stripping back flashy packaging, advertising, and marketing. The idea is to get both buyers and sellers interested in trading for their respective wares: art, designs, clothing, services, etc.
Kathryn says: We believe that it is time for Non*Mart. We are spending beyond our means to keep up with the lure of consumerism, meanwhile, the economy is in crisis and the planet is slowly becoming littered with junk. As artists and creative people, it is time to intervene, now is the time to make community, now is the time to turn the junk we’re inheriting into something beautiful, useful, new.
On Friday night from 6-8 pm, join the ladies for a book swap, fashion exchange, and logo removal service along with ever-popular drinks and snacks, and experience the new alternative to bill-swapping.
A couple weeks ago, the US Department of Energy closed the doors to the Solar Village on the National Mall, and 20 teams dismantled their houses and trucked them back to their respective campuses. While there could be only one overall winner, each of the 10 events named its own champion and in true American fashion, they even selected a People’s Choice recipient.
Team Germany took took the overall title for the second year in a row by impressing judges with their home’s surplus energy production—made by covering every exposed surface with photovoltaic cells—and building the largest structure possible within the given parameters.
Check out the gallery of homes and you just might find some inspiration for powering your own digs…and if not, it’s good eye candy no matter what.
(Poster: Make Us Green by erewitzer)
makeUSgreen, a user-generated poster project, advocates US action in the fight for climate change legislation before current climate laws expire. Anyone can submit a design (according to their specs) and pending approval, it will be added to their gallery and available for download. So go ahead, spread hope and awareness through art and inspire global change while you’re at it.
From their site:
In 39 days, the city of Copenhagen will host the 2009 U.N. Convention on Climate Change, Cop15. The US’s participation in these negotiations is crucial. In 1997, the US failed to join the rest of the world and adopt the Kyoto protocol. We cannot miss this vital opportunity.
File under: Places I Must Go Immediately. Hannah Berggvist has a post up at Planet magazine about Urnatur, an austerely green travel destination in Ödeshög, Sweden. Constructed in 2005 and 2006 by the couple who run it, the collection of cabins has been accepting guests since 2007.
[via Planet; photo by Ulrika Krynitz]
(Image via TreeHugger and Inhabitat)
In honor of Halloween, TreeHugger was nice enough to put together a slideshow of oddities and curiosities that might make weak stomachs even weaker. The list includes augmented reality contact lenses, test tube leather, garments made from wine and bacteria, cyborg beetles…and ten more treats to ponder this holiday season. Oh, and that’s a shower in the image above. If you take too long, those spikes will attack; you’ve been warned.
1992 A-Z Management and Maintenance Unit
Yesterday, Andrea Zittel spoke at the Des Moines Art Center and she touched on topics from the constraints of time (and how that caused her to eat ketchup soup) to discussing limitations and how they actually increase her creativity. To be honest, ever since I watched her segment of PBS’s Art:21 series, I have thought she is one of the most interesting people, and I (rightly) figured she would be even more so in person.
Andrea talked about her life after graduating from school and moving to Brooklyn, where she first started playing around with configurations of her store front/living space, which was something like 200 square feet split into public and private areas. “Since I couldn’t live like other people did, I wanted people to want to live like I did.”
While her designs are decidedly modern and clean, when she started, she didn’t like the look of modern furniture at all. But after reading The Fountainhead, Andrea found herself drawn to the inversion of values that came with the Industrial Revolution (which allowed frilly, fancy things that used to be handmade—and only for the wealthy—to be mass-produced for everyone).
This is the ReadyMade editors' blog. ReadyMade is named after the term that Marcel Duchamp coined in 1915 for a series of sculptures that playfully rethought the relationship between people and mass-produced objects, everyday items and art. ReadyMade is about people who make things and the culture of making.
